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Almost 100 years separate these two images, both of which show the female body. The second is by history’s first surrealistic photographer, Man Ray – who was also a fashion photographer for Vogue. The name of the work, created in 1924, is Le Violon d’Ingres.

The subject was his lover/assistant/friend Kiki, the Montparnasse singer, a woman portrayed with an unlimited artistic sense – her female beauty is portrayed in all its curvy lines. When the body of a woman is photographed in this way, there’s no need for retouching: the two violin f-holes are positioned in exactly the places where the female curviness is clearest. The imagination of the 1930s had no hesitation when it came to representing a woman as curvy.

The first image, in contrast, is a creation of Jocelyne Grivaud, the creator of the site Barbie Ma Muse, which aims to shows a series of similarities between different representations of women and their recreation in the Barbie format. The choice of the most famous doll of the last fifty years is important for the female stereotype it refers to – a skinny physique that obliterates curves and flattens shapeliness. Is Barbie really the women that we all now want to be?